“For added personal depth, we incorporated into this book our father’s diary, his memoirs, his military record with military history, artifacts, the culture of trench warfare, the culture of American society, and current events of that time. When we started this project, the intent was to document our father’s contribution to the history of our country for our family’s posterity: the ink was fading on his memoirs, the diary pages were becoming fragile, and the significance of the artifacts was beginning to be lost on the youngest generation. As the project progressed and nationwide media drew attention to the centennial anniversary of the First World War, people outside of our family expressed interest in what we were doing. It became clear we needed to broaden the audience for our book.”

The Editors

Images

The publication of Remembering World War I: An Engineer’s Diary of the War has been a collaborative effort of the editors: Virginia Dilkes, Georgia Dilkes Harris, and Lola Dilkes Koniuszy, who are the daughters of Charles Edward Dilkes. “We edited and reviewed his manuscript and spent countless hours in libraries relating our father’s memoirs to the written history of the War.” The book contains images and documents from World War I.